Inequality Sharpening In Country: Congress

New Delhi: Attacking the Centre citing a World Bank report, the Congress on Sunday claimed that sharpening inequality is now firmly embedded in the nature of the country's economic growth, and asserted there is a compelling need for tax reforms in GST, ending "brazen corporate favouritism" and providing income support for families.

Congress general secretary in-charge communications Jairam Ramesh said the World Bank has released its Poverty and Equity Brief for India this month, and the report raises several concerns even as the Modi government spins it to its benefit. In its report, the World Bank has said, "Over the past decade, India has significantly reduced poverty. Extreme poverty (living on less than $2.15 per day) fell from 16.2 per cent in 2011-12 to 2.3 per cent in 2022-23, lifting 171 million people above this line."

Ramesh claimed that the World Bank has also warned that more updated data --adoption of purchasing power parity conversion factor from 2021 as compared to that of 2017 -- would result in a higher rate of extreme poverty. "Changes in the questionnaire design, survey implementation, and sampling in the Household Consumption Expenditure Survey 2022-23 present challenges from making comparisons over time', he said, citing the report. "It is worth recalling that these changes were made after the Government rejected the previous iteration of the survey (conducted in 2017-18) after it showed falling consumption in rural areas," he said.

As a lower middle-income country, the appropriate rate to measure poverty in India is that of YSD 3.65/day, Ramesh said, adding that by this measure, the poverty rate for India in 2022 is significantly higher at 28.1%. "Wage disparity in India remains high, with the median earnings of the top 10% being 13 times higher than the bottom 10% in 2023-24. Moreover sampling and data limitations suggest that consumption inequality [as measured by Government data] may be underestimated," he alleged.